Generally, I didn’t seriously process that the trip was going to happen until a day or so before I got on the plane. I happened to see the Qualcomm New York City ePrix as a VIP guest of TAG Heuer. I did not win at that point, and I did not expect to — I’d entered many of the monthly giveaways, but I always thought of those entries as inconsequential larks, fuel for idle fantasies of winning an interesting timepiece. This contest was typically exciting, but I had no illusions about the odds. So, when the site announced another person as the winner, I just took it to be reality kicking in.
I received an email from them a few months later, informing me that the original winner couldn’t make it and inviting me to step in as an alternate. I agreed, but the sudden reversal of fortune made the prospect of actually taking the trip all the more surreal. It turned out to be everything I could have hoped for in terms of the racing and the accommodations. The replica TAG Heuer is a founding partner of Formula E, the official timekeeper of the event, and its official watch. TAG would share with me all of the access that came with that relationship and extends every generosity and hospitality they could to make the trip as fun and comfortable as possible.
There was, incidentally, no better guide in this world than Ariel. He can see a cheap quartz replica watch in the UK and extemporaneously explain that brand’s plans to use new technology to corner the under $100 market in one moment, then recognize a very obscure $40,000 vintage luxury piece on a passerby’s wrist and explain that model’s unique history on the spot in the next. Both of those are literal examples.
I would soon found that one of the first questions virtually everyone I met on the trip could be counted on to ask was “what are you wearing today?” It was always a friendly question, not a judgmental one, but the awkwardness of repeatedly presenting an item as ludicrously out-of-place as a digital Timex for appraisal and discussion would’ve gotten old very fast. And given that I loved the chance to see such a wide variety of interesting timepieces in action, it was nice to have one to show in turn, even if I did dutifully admit it was borrowed. Ariel, incidentally, was fine in those social exchanges even without his replica Omega. When he lent it to me straight off of one wrist, he had a limited edition Japanese fake TAG  Heuer Carrera on the other. That in itself says something about the man’s passion for his field. 
Both Formula E and the city were eager to play up that milestone, and it created the feeling that I was at a celebration as much as an event. The fact that street racing was actually going to take place in New York City had an inherent excitement behind it. The temporary track and grandstands built onto the grounds, combined with the village full of games and demos for race attendees, gave the site the tone of a grand pop-up carnival, a welcoming party for the race’s arrival. In terms of a location being used to create an impression, it was pretty much perfect.